The Seiko RC-1000 Wrist Terminational was the first smartwatch created in 1984. However, these tech gadgets have come a long way since then. Now, they are being used to elevate well-being and maximize productivity. Beyond merely telling time, modern smartwatch gadgets deliver much-needed features optimized for specific activities. A few areas where smartwatches excel include sleep tracking, heart rate monitoring, and contactless payments.
Sleep Monitoring
Regularly getting a good night’s sleep is crucial for physical and mental health. However, objectively assessing one’s own sleep patterns and habits can prove rather difficult without the aid of technology. In response to this, a wide variety of high-tech wrist-worn devices, smartphone apps, and bedside sleep sensors have been developed with the goal of quantitatively monitoring various aspects of one’s slumber each night.
The most common type of sleep tracker is a smartwatch, which is worn directly on the body. These “wearable” devices typically measure movement throughout the night with built-in motion sensors like an accelerometer. More recently, additional sensors for tracking heart rate and blood oxygen levels during sleep have also become prevalent on many wearable trackers. This extra biometric data provides deeper insight into factors like breathing patterns and nocturnal heart activity.
The sleep information provided by trackers tends to include overall sleep duration, amounts of time spent in various stages of sleep (most commonly light and deep), and a daily or weekly “sleep schedule” that shows typical bedtime plus wake periods. Some also generate ambiguous “sleep scores,” though the criteria for such values remain poorly defined. Notwithstanding some limitations, regularly examining sleep patterns with trackers can help optimize schedules and uncover issues warranting discussion with doctors.
Heart Rate Monitoring
Closely monitoring one’s heart activity delivers multiple wellness advantages, from optimizing exercise routines to managing chronic health conditions. As such, smartwatches have positioned themselves as premier platforms for real-time heart rate tracking. Models from leading manufacturers like Apple, Fitbit, Garmin, and others commonly integrate onboard heart rate sensors that have grown more accurate with each new generation.
Rather than relying on imperfect pulse readings from the wrist, advanced sensors can gather heart rate data directly from the bloodstream through non-invasive photoplethysmography (PPG). The optical PPG technique shines dedicated green LED lights into the wrist to penetrate the skin and detect subtle changes in light reflection, indicating heartbeats. This direct optical approach avoids skewing from wrist movements during activities to provide users with continuous, medical-grade heart rate readings right from their wrists.
The newest Apple smartwatches have entirely changed the game.
Their electrical heart sensor can detect atrial fibrillation, a surprisingly common heart condition that increases stroke risk and often goes undiagnosed. By keeping tabs on heart activity and recording any anomalies of concern, the Watch 9 empowers more proactive heart health management.
Contactless Payments
Beyond health monitoring, smartwatches have found widespread application through built-in payment functionality, which can help increase your day-to-day productivity. Their contactless NFC chips allow debit and credit cards to be embedded directly into the wrist for unprecedented transaction convenience. Further streamlined through services like Apple Pay and Google Pay, smartwatch payments now surpass physical cards in ease and security.
Built-in payment capabilities let watches cover all bases, from errands to transit to even secure payments. Advanced encryption and constant device proximity deliver tighter financial security than physical cards leaving wallets. Anonymized payment histories also attend to consumer privacy in today’s personalized economy. Though an expected capability, contactless payments through watches deliver unparalleled everyday practicality.
A prime example of an industry maximizing the usefulness of smartwatch capabilities is the online casino sector. As the popularity of mobile and internet gambling continues soaring across regulated international markets, seamless transactions remain a top priority among players and operators alike.
Contactless payments let users seamlessly deposit and withdraw at online casinos directly from their Apple Watch or other NFC-equipped wearable. Rather than manually entering debit card details into mobile casino apps or websites, payments occur with a simple tap using authenticated payment profiles already set up within watches. This grants unrivaled speed and security compared to traditional e-wallet entry methods.
